Ginger Bay Café serves up relaxing Sundays with good food and live music

For the past several years, patrons of Ginger Bay Café in downtown Hollywood have been punctuating their weekends with a combination of good food and good music. Each week, the restaurant presents ‘Sunday Jazz at the Bay,’ featuring some of South Florida’s most talented artists, including Ruby Baker, Leesa Richards, Jon Saxx, Lauren Carter and performing on Oct. 4, Eric and the Jazzers.

Noel Jones owns the popular spot frequented by African and Caribbean-Americans. He said that while pegged as ‘Jazz at the Bay,’ the music is actually a mixture that includes jazz, R & B, neo-soul and reggae. “A lot of the bands play the neo-soul music instrumentally,” he added.

Jones said the event is successful because, “You get great entertainment with your food.”

“We have right now Hellshire lobster, specially prepared Caribbean lobster that we sort of stole it from the beaches of Jamaica, a place in Jamaica called Hellshire Beach; where they catch the lobster and cook it right in front of you. Our chef is from Jamaica so we picked up the recipe,” he explained, warning readers that the dish is “only available now until January.”

The restaurant has also apparently earned a reputation for some of its other dishes. “We’re known for some of the best ox-tails and curry goat. People tell us we have the best in South Florida.”

There are three chefs in the Ginger Bay kitchen; Chef Kamar, Chef Denzel and Chef Craig Rose comes in on the weekends; cooking up the restaurant’s specialty, jerk chicken and their biggest seller, jerk wings. “People seem to love our jerk wings,” Jones said.

While the evening offers a laid back vibe with what Jones called “relaxing music,” it culminates in an opportunity for patrons to dance off some of the calories they’ve consumed when the D.J. spins “old school music for grown folks” during ‘Retro Sunday,’ which lasts well into the night.

“We usually go to at least 2 a.m.; on holidays when there’s no work, we go until 4 a.m.,” Jones added.

For more information, log on to gingerbaycafe.org and follow the restaurant on Facebook and Instagram.